Docker

PlexIPTV is on Docker Hub as xiaodoudoufr/plexiptv, built for amd64 and arm64, so a Raspberry Pi on a 64-bit OS or an Apple Silicon Mac runs it natively. Every release publishes a new image.

Tags

Avoid the 1.0.x tags. They are from 2018 and miss nearly everything in the changelog.

Docker Compose

Make an empty folder, save this as docker-compose.yml in it (or download the same file from the repository), and change what you need:

• PUID and PGID if 1000 is not the user who should own the config folder (99 and 100 on Unraid)
• TZ to your time zone, such as Europe/Paris, so the log shows your local time
• ./config if your settings should live somewhere else
• the first 1234 under ports if that port is already taken on the host

services:
  plexiptv:
    container_name: plexiptv
    image: xiaodoudoufr/plexiptv:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - PLEXIPTV_LOGDIR=/opt/PlexIPTV/config/logs
    volumes:
      - ./config:/opt/PlexIPTV/config
    ports:
      - "1234:1234"

Then start it from that folder:

docker compose up -d

docker run

The same without Compose:

docker run -d --name plexiptv --restart unless-stopped -p 1234:1234 -e TZ=Etc/UTC -v /path/to/config:/opt/PlexIPTV/config xiaodoudoufr/plexiptv

Swap /path/to/config for a folder of your own, such as /srv/plexiptv or C:\plexiptv on Windows.

Settings

PlexIPTV runs as user and group 1000, never as root. To run it as someone else, set PUID and PGID, for example -e PUID=99 -e PGID=100 on Unraid. The container starts as root just long enough to hand the config folder to that user, so a folder you have not prepared, or one Docker created for you, works as it is.

First start

The first start writes a settings.json into the config folder and prints a password for the dashboard. It is printed once and never written to the log file, so read it now:

docker logs plexiptv

Then put your provider in settings.json (see where channels come from) and restart the container with docker restart plexiptv.

Adding it to Plex

Plex usually cannot discover a container on Docker's default network, because discovery relies on multicast, which does not reach it. Add the tuner by hand as an HDHomeRun at your-server:1234. If you published a different host port, use that one.

On Linux you can run with --network host instead, which lets discovery work. With Compose, that is network_mode: host in place of the ports section. Published ports are ignored in that mode, and the server listens on port 1234 of the host.

ffmpeg

Both images include ffmpeg, so RTSP channels and HLS with fragmented MP4 segments play with nothing extra to install, and a channel that cannot play shows the reason on screen. See streams and formats for when it is used. Set PLEXIPTV_FFMPEG=none if you would rather it never runs.

Logs

logs.txt is written inside the container, so it goes when the container is replaced. To keep it next to your settings, set PLEXIPTV_LOGDIR=/opt/PlexIPTV/config/logs, as the Compose example above does.

Updating

With Compose, from its folder:

docker compose pull

docker compose up -d

Without it:

docker pull xiaodoudoufr/plexiptv

docker rm -f plexiptv

Then run the same docker run command as before. Your settings and the cached playlist live in the config folder, so they carry over either way.

Building it yourself

From a clone of the repository, docker build -t plexiptv . builds the Debian image, and adding -f Dockerfile-alpine builds the Alpine one. Your own settings.json, playlist and logs are left out of the image by .dockerignore.

Apart from the dashboard, the server has no authentication, so keep it on a trusted network and do not forward its port to the internet. More in security.